So sometime between now and the next month your life will change

Karyn and I are sitting here watching TV after making a very nice Jerk Chicken recipe with pineapple and black beans (see picture below). Tomorrow we have another doctors appt - we are going every week now which is just crazy because it's very weird to know that sometime over the next month our life is going to change in a major way. During the day we can focus on work but we know that sometime in the near future a little baby is going to join our family!

What an interesting way to live a 3-4 week period...

Enjoy yet another food picture - I love celebrating successful recipes.

Stay tuned for the arrival of Baby Mann.

"No G.I. Joe for me this year, I want a box of matzoh!"

Have you ever wondered about all of the gimmicks out there for commemorative items? I have seen a couple of places where there are certain magazine covers for Entertainment Weekly where they have collectable covers, or even Sports Illustrated. I know i saved the SI cover from the Maryland championship season in 2002. I also have a coin set that was given to me as a gift from 1978, the year of my birth.

But I have to say I was a little surprised when I started my Passover shopping to find that Manischewitz, the world's largest producer of our most famous bread of affliction - matzoh, had some sort of commemorative box for this year's holiday. Now, it had a fancy clip, a hard shell and if perhaps I was a kid, I could collect different things and put it in. It also had a historical sense to it since it had a design that replicated the "old school" matzo packaging. I know in the industry, airlines do retro-paint schemes to harken back to days of yore....

I just think this special edition matzoh box gave me a huge chuckle. For a second, I even considered giving it to my nieces - maybe they need a new little box to keep charms or keepsakes. And isn't a box from Manischewitz more fun than Barbie or Hannah Montana?

Perhaps...

An association for everyone is out there!

Yesterday, Karyn and I came home from work, got the mail like usual and I got a piece of mail asking for a donation to the Jewish Braille Institute.

Now, don't get me wrong, I absolutely love being Jewish and I support all aspects of sustaining the faith for years to come. But I ask you, are the broader blind-person organizations not being inclusive of the Jewish blind persons? Who knows? I hope that there aren't broad rifts in the blind community where Jewish needs, Christian and Muslim needs are not being harmonized into one effort?

Perhaps too many associations create unnecessary divides.....

Just a thought...

I'm no Madoff, but I do steal money!

It's time for me to admit to a cheating scandal that I have been involved with for the better part of two years. It's doesn't involve marraige, test scores or copying material at work.

Every morning when I head to work I exit the Farragut North station and make my way to get my morning coffee at Caribou. I order my medium dark or light roast and then glance at the trivia question on the board high on the wall for an additional 10 cents off. The trick is that each cashier writes on the top of the inside machine what the answer is. Sure the screen is tilted but its just so easy to glance when they go and grab your coffee. I give an inquisitive look and then act like I think I may know it! (And sometimes-as the Trivia junkie I am-I do know it)

Caribou Coffee workers think I'm a genius!

So there it is, I've been holding it in for so long. The secret's out! I've been slowly draining this huge coffee corporation over the last two years.

....I forecast the total loss to be 20 dollars :-)

One eye on adulthood and one eye in the rear view mirror

Over the last two weekends, I have been able to see little things in my life where I say to myself "Am, I really an adult? How did this happen?" Aside from the fact that I will be entering parenthood sometime in May, I still consider myself a little kid at heart. Maybe it's because I get so excited for the same thing I did when I was 5 - planes.

This past weekend we got our couches delivered and they were slip covers (which if you asked me prior to buying, i would have said, slip covers, what the hell is that?). They were actually delivered bare with white cushions. In the bags to the side were all of the slip covers that i realized had to go on. I kept thinking of that infamous Cosby Show episode when Mr. Huxtable is trying to get Rudy out of her winter coat... That's pretty much how my 1.5 hour battle with the slip covers went. It was during this slip cover battle I realized - Howie is now Howard and Howard is a full-blown adult....

But then I harken back to the weekend before where we teen-sat our friends kids who were 12 and 14. I spent all weekend playing Wii rockband, battling in NFL Monopoly and shooting hoops (even though, while I love watching all kinds of sports, I fit the jewish boy stereotype of sucking wind at playing all of them, aside from bowling and tennis).

I guess I am constantly being reminded that I am indeed an adult but will always also be a kid at heart.

I'll take it...

The problems of the aisle seat....

First mobile blog! I'm sitting in seat 10D on a flight to Vegas for work and I'm so amazed that people keep bumping into me. I can understand a little but it always makes me chuckle when I get a elbow, hip or butt cheek in my face. And next time don't bring your widest bag you own. Argh! I'm a seasoned traveler but come on!

Off to Sin City.

When Nine becomes Three...

The tuesday after labor day, Karyn came into our bedroom in the early morning to show me the pregnancy test that was positive. At that moment, I was overwhelmed with excitement but still had in the back of my mind that 9 months was far away.

Now it's February 3 and I ask myself where did the time go? We have successfully moved, we are almost settled so to speak and we are entering the last trimester with a lot of excitement. The weird thing is that I don't find myself worrying about major issues such as being a good father, rearing my kids in the right way, sleep, providing them nutritious meals, etc. I find myself haveing more random worries such as:

Am I going to pick up the kid or drop them off and if I am on pick up duty, what will happen if the Red Line is mega delayed?

Depending on its a boy or a girl and I buy them a ton of items with airplanes on it - will people think I am just pushing my hobby onto my kid - what if they like trains, spaceships, or historical coins?

Will my kid think mommy and daddy are total weirdos if we sing in the car on the way to places?

We are about to begin birthing classes which could lead to other more real-world issues coming into play about having a newborn but for now, I'll stick with what works for me ;)